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Published: July 27th 2013
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0 locks, 349 in total – we did have 2 swing bridges and 2 lift bridges today thoufh – it's not
allplain sailing!
A day of sunshine and scenery for the most part and two missed photo opportunities. There was a family of 8 very small ducklings who decided that chasing our boat was fun – they almost ran across the water in little bursts of energy and it was very funny. It stopped abruptly when about 30 Canada Geese decided to take off in our direction, very shortly after we had passed them by – quite unnerving seeing all these fat stomachs and large feet coming straight towards you at eye level before dropping down immediately behind us!
There was some industry at New Mills and also the Matlow's factory – Swizzles? Love Hearts? Refresher Bars? - you could smell the treasures as you went past – delicious.
There were 2 smallish marinas but little boat movement on the canal until late afternoon and evening so they were cutting it fine weatherwise for it's tipping down now.
The Upper Peak Forest Canal splits near the end and as we needed to take on water we opted to motor into Whaley Bridge Basin and then walk back along the other arm into Bugsworth Basin. Sadly Whaley Bridge had very few visitor moorings, all full, and loads of permanent moorings which were half empty. The basin itself was quite small and completely lost amongst the many tall trees growing there. A very busy road ran alongside and an incredibly noisy metalworks was in full swing despite it being Saturday. The town has a great deal of canal history but the basin was a disappointment. The grand scheme had been to link Whaley Bridge with the Cromford Canal and therefore also the Trent but it was an engineering feat too far. Instead the Cromford & High Peak Railway was built but the terrain was so steep in places that stationary engines had to be used for these slopes. The 1:8 incline out of Whaley Bridge is now a footpath and sections of the railway line still exist, as does the transshipment wharf which straddles the canal.
Bugsworth (or
Buxworth, as the locals prefer!) Basin is an absolute delight, and it now has a water point so we really made the wrong choice. It has recently been restored after decades of neglect; all the basins are intact again, what little remained of the lime industry buildings has been preserved and the water vole colony discovered during the restoration works has been given a new habitat. The basins and many wharves were built to service the limestone quarries at Doveholes. The 6 mile long horse-drawn Peak Forest Tramway linked the two places. Limestone was brought to the wharves, tipped out of the trucks using a tippler machine, crushed and then burnt in lime kilns to produce lime for other industries. In the 1880s 600 tons of limestone and lime were processed daily – it must have been a hellish and noisy place to work but now it is open, clean and tranquil.
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